Any experienced hiker will admit that even with a map, it’s easy to get lost when climbing a mountain. Maps offer only static data, leaving hikers to rely on trail markers to determine exactly where they are.
But upgrade to a GPS unit and suddenly all the stress of navigation is gone! It shows the hikers exactly where they are in real time, and how much longer until, say, the next stream crossing. It gives them peace of mind to look at the beauty of the vistas instead of the map.
Running a print shop today without a Print MIS is like trying to summit an Alaskan peak with only a flimsy hiker’s map. The software not only gives you real time data on how far each job has gone but also allows for course correcting so that all jobs can be completed on time.
Benefits of Real Time Data
Any in-plant or commercial printer that is able to harness the power of real time data will see staggering growth. Access to data gives your print business the opportunity to see patterns, processes, and workflows that it never could see before. With this live information on hand, your company will benefit in several ways:
- Happier customers
- More efficient workflows
- Larger profits
- Fewer human errors
- More on-time deliveries
See How a Print MIS Can Boost Your Profits
Your Print MIS is the key to on-hand live information to drive better decision-making and profits. By automating critical business processes, it integrates operations and disparate systems, producing powerful data and reports that can improve your overall print business. One of the key components of a Print MIS is its ability to provide business owners with critical real time data that gives them insight into every print job.
Using a Print MIS allows you to see easily the real time visibility status of jobs and get an overview of all aspects of production, planning, shipping, and billing. An advanced Print MIS solution can also shed light on the profitability of every job.
Greater Efficiency
The data capabilities of your Print MIS are only as good as the mechanism you use to view them. Be sure to invest in a Print MIS that can be customized, offering a comprehensive executive dashboard where you can easily see and interpret live metrics related to your print jobs. A good executive dashboard provides easy-to-use analysis tools and real time notifications to help you understand and manage your business. It also helps you track your key performance indicators (KPIs) and will use graphics to represent job status, profits, customer service, financials, sales, marketing, and more.
The executive dashboard will give you vital information on where your jobs are getting hung up, where you can increase your profits, and where you can automate processes. Knowing all of this will allow you to increase your business’s overall efficiency.
Powerful Insights
Through an executive dashboard, you can monitor each stage of your production process, from onboarding to output, formulating reports that will provide you with an in-depth understanding of each business process. By providing customized and standard reports, your Print MIS can help you make critical decisions and gain powerful insights into your company’s past, present, and future jobs.
Job Tracking and Costing
Print shop volumes can vary from dozens to hundreds of jobs being juggled in the pipeline at any one time. When that’s the case, you need to know where each job is in the workflow and its total cost. Understanding these two pieces of information is essential to producing strong, on-time outputs while maintaining a positive profit margin.
Robust Print MIS packages include a job manager module that provides information on all print jobs, past and present, as well as real time metrics on job costing, tracking, profitability, and invoicing. A module such as this allows you to completely manage your print service visibility.
Shipping
Meeting shipping and delivery deadlines is important to any print shop’s success. Missing deadlines can lead to a loss of business and revenue, making this a priority process to manage. More advanced Print MIS solutions integrate with shipping vendors, offering courier labels, calculating taxes, and allowing for the tracking of shipments after the transfer of the shipping and billing information to them.
Improved Customer Satisfaction
The real time data a Print MIS gives you will lead to more satisfied customers. Why? By improving your business processes, you create a more efficient workflow, which means more on-time deliveries, fewer errors, and better overall output. Improved job tracking will also help your customer service agents quickly answer any inquiries. Your customers will be amazed at just how simple it is to work with your company – and get a great product!
Harness Real Time Data with Avanti Slingshot®
Avanti Slingshot® is a sophisticated and comprehensive Print MIS that gives both in-house and commercial printers access to real time data. You’ll have decision-making power across all business processes. If you’re unsure how to make a job profitable, you can quickly run the numbers with Avanti Slingshot and generate an estimate that gives you a specified product margin.
Data in print reaches across more than just profit estimations, too. It touches multiple facets of the entire print production workflow. With Avanti, you can achieve all of the following:
- Data at Your Fingertips: Avanti Slingshot’s Executive Dashboard provides analysis tools and real time notification functionality to help you better understand and manage your business.
- Insightful Reporting: With numerous standard reports, the Avanti Slingshot Print MIS reporting module can help you make sense of all your Print MIS data. From extensive costing, job tracking, and efficiency analytics, you can gain valuable insight into your business’s past, present, and near future.
- Job Tracking and Costing: Get real time updates on where your job exists in the overall production workflow. You can also perform advanced searches to quickly locate jobs, monitor equipment use, and improve employee efficiency.
- Shipping: Avanti Slingshot’s Shipping module integrates with the United States Postal Service, UPS, Purolator, and FedEx to track shipments after simply transferring the shipping and billing information to them. Automatically transfer information for packing slips and labels, too.
- Happy Customers: Avanti Slingshot offers a customer relationship management (CRM) module that you can take advantage of to strengthen relationships with your customers.
Request a Real Time Data Demo
Real time data is a pillar of the Avanti Print MIS software. It is integrated into every piece of the MIS, allowing your business to reap all the benefits. It is truly unparalleled in its data availability and reporting capabilities.
But don’t take our word for it!
You can see the power of Avanti Slingshot for yourself by requesting a free online demo, where our experts will speak with you directly and demonstrate how the software works. Your demo will be customized using actual job samples from your company. Our experts will also show you how to use Avanti Slingshot to grow your profit and even give tips on staying ahead of the competition.
